"Regional Community Engagement Specialist"

Job Details

The Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) celebrates 40 years as Virginia's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Research, Training, and Dissemination (www.partnership.vcu.edu). The Partnership's Center for Family Involvement (CFI) provides emotional, informational and systems navigational support to families to help them increase their skills as advocates, mentors, and leaders so that families, children, and young adults with disabilities can lead the lives they want.

The Partnership is seeking a dynamic person to serve in the Regional Community Engagement Specialist position, which is a part-time position for 10-12hours/week.

The Partnership is a grant-funded center in the School of Education at VCU. This position is grant-funded. We anticipate long-term funding for this role; however, similar to other grant-funded organizations, we could be impacted by funding changes at the federal level. This position will be open rank with an anticipated slotting of Coordinator, CE 1 (80241)

Regional Community Engagement Specialist

The Regional Community Engagement Specialist is a part-time, hourly, grant-funded position (approximately 48 hours per month or around 10-12 hours per week) reporting to the Director of the CFI’s Family to Family (F2F) Network of Virginia. The Regional Community Engagement Specialist provides backbone support to councils and committees for which the CFI and F2F are funded to support. One such committee is the Individual and Family Support (IFSP) Regional Councils that were formed in Virginia to give people with developmental disabilities and their families a formal voice in shaping services, such as through:

• Gathering input on needs, gaps, and priorities from individuals and families,
• Strengthening collaboration between DBHDS, providers, and the community, and
• Advising on how IFSP funds and other resources are used

Education Experience:

• Minimum: High School Diploma/GED and 1-3 years relevant professional experience or equivalent combination of education, experience, and training (preferred Associate degree or higher with 5+ years of experience working in or navigating the Medicaid Home & Community-Based Waiver systems)

Typical Expertise:

• Have a strong understanding of the experiences of people with disabilities and their families, particularly those who use Medicaid Long Term Supports and Services
• Have a good working knowledge of disability community-based services such as Medicaid Waivers, Community Services Boards, and other services and supports used by children and adults with disabilities and their families in the Central Virginia/Richmond Metropolitan area.
• Have strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to communicate in a clear, positive manner with diverse clients and staff
• Have experience building and maintaining trusted relationships across regional and community levels
• Have experience facilitating meetings with diverse stakeholders (agency representatives, families, people with disabilities), including recruiting members, organizing meetings, taking notes, and reporting out on progress
• Be proficient in managing timelines
• Be positive, collaborative, self-directed, self-motivated, organized, and able to multitask
• Be flexible with shifting project deliverables, changing project funder needs, or unclear tasks
• Have proficient computer skills in Microsoft Office, Google Suites, and other web-based software.
• Demonstrated experience working in and fostering an environment of respect, professionalism, and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from various backgrounds and experiences, or a commitment to do so as a staff member of VCU
• Regional Community Engagement specialist will actively participate in the continuous improvement process and will report directly to the Family to Family Director.
• General approval for work designated to the Regional Community engagement specialist will come from the Family to Family Director and the Center for Family Involvement Director. This may include, but is not limited to, external communications, development of resource materials, data entry, report writing, deviations from established protocols, and any other matters designated by the F2F and CFI directors.

Responsibilities:

Meeting Coordination and Facilitation:

• Schedule monthly, virtual council meetings for the Central VA Individual and Family Support Program (IFSP) Regional Council (typically occur between the 21st and 26th of each month)
• Facilitate Central VA IFSP Council planning meetings, as needed
• Attend All-Hands Meetings between the CFI and the Virginia Dept of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities (DBHDS) IFSP staff (typically on the fourth Wednesday of the month)

Reporting and Documentation:

• Complete and submit a monthly report to the CFI and DBHDS IFSP staff detailing Central VA Regional IFSP Council activities from the previous month
• Document meetings in the CFI Salesforce database on an ongoing basis.

Outreach and Resource Management:

• Working with Central VA Regional IFSP Council members and CFI staff members and volunteers in the Central VA region, identify and outreach to one new local support for families or people with disabilities each month
• Ensure that the Central VA Regional IFSP Council members post the one new local support and two other local resources to the dedicated Facebook page (typically by the 20th of each month)
• Outreach to agencies and organizations in the Central VA region to exchange resources for the benefit of people with disabilities on the Medicaid Waiver waitlist and families
• Assist in the annual recruitment, screening and interviewing of volunteer Central VA Regional IFSP Council members
• Communicate regularly with Central VA Regional IFSP Council members about training, event, and meeting opportunities, and help facilitate their attendance and participation

Engagement and Collaboration:

• Ongoing, recommend a best practice about engaging people with disabilities and their families to attend IFSP Council Meetings (typically on a quarterly basis)
• Recommend a topic for an IFSP Council Meeting educational presentation on a quarterly basis
• Submit an article, toolkit, app, podcast, video or other resource of interest for the monthly DBHDS IFSP digest
• Ongoing, collaborate with CFI staff, DBHDS staff, and Central VA Regional IFSP Council members to develop a flexible work plan
• Meet one-on-one with DBHDS IFSP staff as needed

• Other duties as assigned

CONTACT

NAME: Nickie Brandenburg
EMAIL: tnbrandenburg@vcu.edu